(Zack)

I'm back to that place outside of existence, and can sense those two… things. I'm watching existence, the giant Crystal that is all that exists, contains all that exist within it. Yet those two things are outside of it. Do they exist? Or do they not?

If I touch they crystal, they'll likely sense me again, but there's a good chance that I won't be able to return to myself just from that. Looking around, I confirm the nothingness around me. Nothing at all.

And then, without warning, I'm in the cave with the crimson dragon with violet eyes, who's smiling at me.

"Hello, Zack," he says. "Best not to be outside of existence for too long, lest that which doesn't exist attempt to grip you."

"Uh… hello?" I say.

"Hi," he chuckles. "You seem shocked."

"Aren't I in Power Jump?" I ask. "This is… different than last time."

"Your heritage makes things unusual," he says. "Consider yourself both as having a vision of things and not."

Because that makes total sense, but I'll roll with it. I'm Zack Noruva, after all.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Asking is free," he answers, then snorts. "For now."

I'm going to ignore that.

"Why do you work with Alexander?"

"I don't."

"But you send Dragons-"

He lets out a massive bellow, laughing so deeply that the air itself shakes with the force of it. It takes him several minutes to calm down, turning that violet gaze back to me.

"The Dragons that attack the cities are his own doing," Big FD says. "Not mine. I only sometimes send Dragons for him when I'm feeling particularly bored and he needs something stronger than one of his own. My own Dragons live here, in this realm that permeates all existence while existing outside of it."

"That makes no sense."

"It will," he tells me. "When you're older, more mature, and have come into more of your power, Zack."

"O…kay," I say. "So. What am I doing until this 'vision' ends?"

"Want to play cards?"

"Are you even able to play cards like that?" I ask, and he grins at me.

Immediately, his form begins to change, shifting and changing, shrinking down. Within moments, he's a boy my age, dressed in a navy blue tunic, black pants, and a pair of black leather boots, a black leather belt wrapped around his waist with a crimson metal buckle designed like a dragon, with what look like real amethysts set into it for eyes.

He has familiar brown hair and blue eyes. Very familiar brown hair and blue eyes.

"Are we… related?"

"Yes," he answers, his voice light and amused. "We're related, Zack."

"Are you stuck at thirteen?"

"I can be any age I want," he laughs. "Since you're thirteen, I figured, I'd take the form of someone of a similar age to you, make it for similar height."

"So is being short something in the family?" I ask. "Or did you just choose to be that way?"

"This wasn't always considered short," he tells me. "And I'm rather fond of it."

"So you can turn into a Dragon, too?" I ask.

"I can be anything I want," he tells me. "Though you didn't inherit that particular trait. As far as I can tell, you just have your human and Dragon forms."

"Am I as big as you?"

"Not even close," he tells me. "You're much too young for that. Nice fight against the Santa Boss, by the way. I was in stitches when you turned into a Dragon. Actually destroyed a mountain from the force of my laughter."

I am so glad he didn't destroy this one while I was inside of it with his laughter a minute ago.

"Do you know how I can do it on purpose?"

"Nope," he answers. "Such powers are dependent on you. Come on, let's play cards, you'll be out for almost four hours this time."

Big FD manifests a deck of cards, and we play until I feel myself pulling out of the vision.

Before I even open my eyes, I can smell it. Food. Lots of food. Opening my eyes and sitting up, I look to the source of it, which turns out to be Nathan cooking something huge over a fire.

"Is that a hog?" I ask, and Nathan looks at me, then quickly blushes before returning to his preparations.

Looks like he's making a bit of a feast.

Zack?

"Yes, Big S?"

Where did you go?

"What do you mean?" I ask as I start hunting for my sword, and Nathan looks at me, curious. "Big S is talking to me."

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He makes an 'o' with his mouth, then returns to cooking. As if it's perfectly normal to converse with the Crystals like I do.

He does, doesn't he? Dang. Here I was, thinking it was just me.

You had your Power Jump vision, Big S says. Except I sensed you… leave. You did the same thing last time, only you were back quickly, and had a residue on you that told me you'd temporarily left Existence itself.

"That leaves a residue?" I sheathe my sword.

Yes. You have it this time, too, but it's so faint… you went somewhere else.

"I was playing cards with Big FD."

With who?

"The Dragon you told me not to tell the other Crystals I'd seen."

Big S lets out a heavy sigh in my mind, but doesn't talk further. I walk over to Nathan and help him finish cooking. He doesn't talk at all, but at least I know what he's making.

As soon as we're done cooking, we start eating, finishing up just as Nik approaches us. From the sky, and he looks panicked.

"What in the hell are you two doing?" He asks. "There is a giant fucking monster on the loose that could kill you, you know."

Nathan cracks up laughing.

"Why's he laughing?" Nik asks.

"You're going to be mad, so I'm not going to answer."

"You fought it, didn't you?"

"Yes," I answer.

"Where's it run off to?"

"Hell," I answer. "Actually, do monsters go to hell? Or-"

"You expect me to believe you killed that?" Nik asks.

"I am stronger," I tell him. "And I had better equipment."

Nik looks at me, assessing my equipment, then frowns.

"When did you get that?" He asks.

"Erm," I say. "I had Jackson forge it."

"It feels," he approaches me. "Powerful. Like it's made of-how many ores went into this?"

"Uh," I say. "I think… a lot? Seven."

"Seven Holiday Ingots or rare ores," Nik mutters. "Yet at the same time-Primordial Essence. You got some?"

Damn, he's good.

"From a Platinum Present from the Santa Boss," I admit. No use hiding it. "Jackson forged it for me in secret. It was able to pierce the Nian's hide a lot easier than my other swords, and the armor held up well, too."

Actually, speaking of things holding up, I need to check my sword for nicks and such. How will I sharpen it back up? Pulling my sword from its sheath, I begin examining it as Nik starts scolding Nathan for agreeing to this.

The blade doesn't have a single mark on it, completely undamaged by the Nian's hide and claws. That's impressive. Just how powerful a beast would be needed in order to damage this thing, if the Nian failed to?

I remove my armor and inspect those, finding them as pristine as when I received them, then pull them all back on and sheathe my sword once more.

Nik's still scolding Nathan for how reckless it was, and said that he's over a hundred years old and should know better than to do something like that. Isn't he the one person on their team who would be able to escape a dangerous fight of absurd proportions on his own? From what I know, the little healer has an immense amount of Mana, and he's even faster than me.

If things got serious, he could heal me, grab me, and take off.

"Nik," I say. "Let the little guy go. He regularly travels into Lost Territory, remember? He probably knew about Nians before."

Nik looks at me for a moment, then looks at Nathan.

"Did you?" Nik asks, and Nathan averts his gaze. "Normar, have you known about the Nians?"

Nathan gives a shy nod.

"And you never said anything?"

"He probably knew about the rewards, too," I say, and Nathan's cheeks flush, confirming it.

"You've killed a Nian before?" Nik's shocked.

"The reward isn't for killing it," I say. "There isn't a reward for killing it."

Nathan's slight pout tells me he didn't know about that. So he hasn't killed one before. How much has he done to it?

"Then what reward are you talking about?" Nik looks at me.

"Every million damage an individual deals to a specific Nian," I say. "They receive a reward. Five plat for the first million, five Temporal Ingots for the second, a Stat Token for the third, and five Primordial Essence for the fourth. After that, you receive them over again, though increased. Double the base, then triple, quadruple, quintuple, ending at twenty-five plat, twenty-five Temporal Ingots, five Stat Tokens, and twenty-five Primordial Essence."

The old Dark Knight seems stunned by that knowledge.

"However," I say. "Time slows down when you're fighting it, even if you don't. That includes your regenerations. Not only that, but the Nian seems to get tougher the less Health it has. My sword was cutting through it like a hot knife through soft butter at first, but by the end, it was like my Spook Sword at the start – with a fair bit of resistance. Not only that, but it got a bit faster and stronger, too."

My mentor closes his eyes and lets out a very heavy sigh before opening them and looking at the two of us.

"And Normar didn't tell anyone because he didn't want us attempting to get those rewards," Nik finally says. "In case we risked dying against it while he wasn't around. How much did you manage to do the one you fought, Normar?"

Nathan wiggles a little bit, definitely uncomfortable by all the attention put on him. Eventually, he holds up two fingers. I attempt to read his thoughts, though it's not easy. Easier than most people, though, so I guess we count as being close?

"Two million?" Nik asks, and Nathan nods. "Were you trying to kill it?"

"No," I snort as Nathan's thoughts hit me. "He was trying to escape it. It probably thought he was another juicy kid, another decent snack for it to consume. The first in a long while. Ours was pretty pissed over not having had a snack in over a century, it's safe to assume that Nathan's probably the first treat they've smelled in… a long while. At least, out in the Lost Territory."

Could that be why he was here? To stick around until after it was 'safe' to travel back out there?

Nathan shrugs, then looks at me curiously.

"They never told you that I can read minds, did they?" I ask, and his eyes widen. "It's not an accurate art, Nathan, I only get some impressions of what you're thinking. It's easier with people like Gold, since that's their primary method of communication. By the way – I don't have an issue with you being friends with him, I was just shocked about it. And because of your friendship… I kind of want to know something."

He gives me a curious look.

"Did he tell you about leaving the City before he did?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "So you didn't know he was going to try and teach himself how to fight?"

He shakes his head, and I sigh.

"What?" Nik asks.

"He knew Gold was going to try to 'be strong'," I say. "Just not that he was going to leave the City."

"Jeez," Nik mutters under his breath, switching to some language I don't know.

I just shrug, then finish my meal before it finishes going frozen. Nik helps us clean things up, then the three of us head back to town.

"Nik," I say once we're at my house, since he decided to walk me there.

"What?" He looks as if he expects me to drop a massive bomb on him.

"By the way," I say. "There won't be a new Nian in the valley for twenty years. I'm not sure if the walls will still go crimson or not, but it'll be as safe as always to enter the valley during the time of the Crimson Walls for the next twenty years."

"What makes you think that?" He asks.

"The only notification that wasn't about my Levels after I killed it," I answer. "Duh!"

I turn and enter my property as Nik groans, then he leaves. Gold's busy staring at cards, and he looks at me with concern, only for me to remember that I'm kind of covered in the blood of two beasts. Guess he's spending the night here tonight, too. I'm still expecting him to just start sleeping at the Dark Temple, with how much he's been in it the last few nights.

"Hey, Gold," I walk over to him. "I'd give you a hug, but then you'd get blood all over you. I killed the Nian. No one fucks with my friends."

His face lights up with excitement as his tail wags, then he charges forward, tackling me and giving me a hug.

"The blood! The blood!"

Well, and I'm actually pretty sore from the fight, too. Gold releases me, tilting his head to the side.

"Gah, Gold!" I say. "Now you're covered in blood! Where's your other outfit? The one that makes you look like a Dark Knight Beastborn?"

He puffs out his chest, and I crack up laughing. I can't help it.

"Come on," I say. "Let's go get washed up."